A newly updated and expanded edition of the bestselling Up North books, this is an entertaining guide to Ontario's north for every cottager, camper, and nature lover.
Have you ever wondered how porcupines procreate? Or where you can best see the northern lights? Or how many fireflies it takes to equal the light of a 40-watt bulb? The answers to these questions - and many, many more - are in this lively and indispensable field guide to the plants and animals of Ontario's wilderness.
Filled with amusing trivia, easy-to-understand natural history, and little-known folklore, The Complete Up North is the perfect introduction and companion to Ontario's great outdoors. Naturalists Doug Bennet and Tim Tiner answer those questions we have always wanted to ask - and many others we wish we'd thought to ask - about plants, mammals, birds, fish, insects, reptiles, clouds, the night sky, the weather, and the ground we walk on. Their infectious curiosity makes Up North as fun and interesting to read as it is useful to pack for a hike into the woods. Introduction
ANIMAL KINGDOM
BIRDS
CREEPY CRAWLIES
FISH (and Aquatic Companions)
MAMMALS
REPTILES AND AMPHIBIANS
PLANT KINGDOM
PLANTS
TREES
THE HEAVENS
DAY SKY
NIGHT SKY
MOTHER EARTH
Acknowledgments
Recommended Reading
Resource Guide
Index
- Toronto Sun DOUG BENNET and TIM TINER are the authors of the bestselling guidebooks to Ontario's wilderness Up North and Up North Again. Veteran birders, canoers, and campers, they are members of the Federation of Ontario Naturalists. When they are not out hiking in the bush, both of them live in Toronto.
MARTA SCYTHES is a fine artist, medical illustrator, and educator. Her work has been published by Harrowsmith Magazine and The Canadian Encyclopedia. She is featured in Canadian Geographic's "TransCanada Trail" guides and The Canadian Medical Association Magazine. She currently teaches at Fleming College and at the Haliburton School of the Arts. INTRODUCTION
Who would have thought a 1989 conversation around a campfire in Algonquin Park would lead to this, The Complete Up North, the fifth book in a loose series sparked by simple curiosity about the world around us "up north."
This book is both a compilation of the best from the first two books, Up North and Up North Again, and also an update based on the many natural changes and scientific advancements since those titles were published in the 1990s. Just two examples: in our early books, there was nary a mention of double-breasted cormorants. But the waterfowl's population has since exploded, and now the black bird — love it or hate it — merits its own entry. And in our Night Sky section, many entries have been updated to reflect mind-bending advances in astronomical research and even bureaucratic redefinitions: Pluto's not even a planet anymore, technically speaking.
But the basic premise of The Complete Up North remains the same: it is an attempt to answer, from a sense of wonder, a good number of the questions prompted by our experiences in the woods and wilderness when we go up north.
